[sledfang]

A lot of really impressive stuff came out of the animations this year. I truly enjoyed the Top 5 system, and my original worries that FIRST was trying to phase out the AVA competition were pretty much quelled as soon as I found out about it. All of the animations in the Top 5 were outstanding, and I saw quite a few others that were also very good.

@ MadeAtMidnight
Thanks for the compliment. The grayscale scene was actually the one that I was responsible for. That scene looked pretty good in color and it looked quite a bit more real with the color turned off and Noise added to it. Plus the really-old-TV-style refresh lines going across it if you caught those. That scene and the caveman are probably my favorite.

The "4 completely different art styles" thing proved tough though. Getting the egyptian's texture (hand drawn by one of our newer members) to work on the funky spline outline proved daunting, as well as being forced to separate the arms and legs to make it walk.

Actually, the initial idea that we had in mind started with that evolution drawing everyone has seen of the ape turning into the modern human in multiple stages. After a couple of meetings we narrowed it down to something remotely similar to what the final animation is. The caveman that we used in the first scene was drawn as a joke by one of my fellow seniors and we liked it and ran with it. We added the little antelope and hunters to fill in background space and because we thought it was pretty funny.

The Egyptian hieroglyphics were a nightmare all the way through to be honest. Getting that background wall to look decent took tons of messing around with textures and bump maps (and lighting of course), and i never really got exactly what I was looking for.

The grayscale scene was sort of an industrial age type deal, with the introduction of cars and planes. I sort of went the extra mile with the mountains in the background... probably spent more time than I needed to on them. Displacement maps and whatnot.

The final city scene was mostly done by one of our senior members, and I must say that the environment here is really good. There are posters on the first wall advertising the movie "Cube Wars II." The only reason I mention this is because it's a throwback to last year's 547 animation and I'm pretty sure you guys from 1625 probably saw it at St. Louis last year. I met Peter Casey because of the Death Cube if I remember correctly. Anyway, a ton of time was put into the environment and lighting here, and even though the helicopter that was supposed to be in the background at the end mysteriously vanished from the final render, it turned out OK. The character did some wierd thing with his legs at the end which is why the car drives by in the last couple of seconds.

Anyway, sorry to type so much. And to keep with the purpose of this topic, CONGRATS TEAM 1625! You guys earned it!